The Most Strategic Weapon in Your Mobile Arsenal

Nowadays Mobile should be at the centre of your corporate strategy, if it is not then you are probably missing out on some major cost saving and streamlining benefits to your business through innovation to your Information Workers. Though going mobile is not a magic bullet, the major challenge is delivering brilliant experiences at a time of increasing device proliferation and experiences that are innovative. In the words if the late and great Steve Jobs... Innovation distinguishes between a leader and a follower! But fear not you have a unsung hero at your beck and call! In fact one that will be more than eager to help. Let me explain further.

When you are planning a mobile project it is best to plan ahead by gathering together a group that we will call the Mobile Innovation Council (MIC) - covered in past articles. This group's goal is to originate and proliferates end-to-end solutions across all your business units in your Enterprise. Then the most strategic weapon in your mobile arsenal, within the MIC is the Prosumer. The Prosumer is a experienced Consumer of Mobile and a Professional in your Enterprise. Through their day to day usage of mobile technology, they have an understanding of what can be achieved and expect the same experience from Corporate built Apps and App Stores that they get daily from the Consumer world.

NOTE: The Prosumer in the Mobile Innovation Council, will not be one specific person but a persona that could well be shared amongst a number of the MIC group. Saying that, the most powerful individual for each Mobile Project will be a prosumer that is a business user for the Mobile App being developed in-house.

So how do we solve the challenge of delivering brilliant experiences? The answer is the Prosumer (empowered with business knowledge), in combination with Design Thinking, being at the core of your in-house Enterprise Mobile Developments, within the Mobile Innovation Council.

CIO, CTO & Developer Resources

If Design Thinking is new to you, it is all about, being able to...

Design from outside in, think of what the Prosumer/End Users wants include the advantages and benefits that can be achieved by a mobile app.

Do not let technology lead the solution. Think in this order... Meaning > Solution > Product > Technology.

Understand, observe and listen to the point of view of the end users. They have the business knowledge and know what currently works, or does not work. Also think about living a few days in the life of your end user.

Do not be afraid to fail cheaply and repeatedly. It is all about learning and building on that learnt knowledge. As in the early stages of the Design Thinking Process, deciding to reiterate through the process cost a whole lot less that having to recode a solution after development has started.

As one of the Sybase Technical Evangelists, Ian regularly addresses technical audiences all over the world and his sessions are always very well attended. He also writes education classes, whitepapers, demos and articles for various Sybase products and publishes regularly in Journals such as SYS-CON's PBDJ and International Developer Magazine. He is also the Sybase Unwired Platform & PocketBuilder Evangelist and works closely with the team in Dublin, CA and Concord, MA on new features and demonstrations for the products. In his customer-facing Evangelist role, Ian is very involved with the design, production and testing of Enterprise class Unwired Solutions, that have been implemented using Sybase's Unwired tools for Sybase customers around the globe. In addition, Ian is a dedicated technical expert continually working with Sybase's key partners and clients to enhance the capabilities of the Unwired solutions that Sybase can offer to its customers. Ian can also be found on Twitter @ithain

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